


Death, Daisies, and Cookies

by Cocoa_N_Donuts



Series: Blackhill Week 2018 [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Blackhill Week 2018, Day 2: Soulmates, F/F, Homophobic Language, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Non-Graphic Violence, They have messed up pasts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 05:56:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13451952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cocoa_N_Donuts/pseuds/Cocoa_N_Donuts
Summary: When she was 7, Maria felt her soulmate die. In a world where you share a telepathic bond with your soulmate, Maria grew up with an utterly silent connection.Then, decades later, a mental image filters through Maria's bond, and she sees through the eyes of the Black Widow.





	Death, Daisies, and Cookies

**Author's Note:**

> This piece is dedicated to my late grandmother. I’m still sorry I never got to say goodbye, and I’m sorry I couldn’t help with anything even though your life was filled with such pain. I’m sorry I was the one to inadvertently cause you a more than a decade of suffering.
> 
> 阿嫲, 我会记得当年您做给我的饭糕。 虽我只是个后辈，我会尽我本份，不会让这家散。您就安息吧。

2

Maria is two when she feels her soulmate entering the world, torn from a warm, dark womb, into a cold, bright place where the cloth on her skin chafes so annoyingly, and everything in the world is _wrong._

Maria screams and wails along with her soulmate in protest and solidarity.

4

Her soulmate is only beginning to learn basic words that made no sense to Maria. “Mama” she understands, but “Batya” was entirely new to her.

6

She had a thing going on with her soulmate -Natalia- now. When one of them learned a new word, they would send a mental image of an object and say the word in their language. The other would reply in their own language and they would both learn two new words.

Maria learned that her soulmate’s native language was Russian, and the curling of her tongue as she said those words amused her to no end.

Maria’s father found her babbling in Russian one day, and realises that her soulmate was a Russian girl.

“First, you killed your mother, and now your soulmate is an enemy of our state? You traitorous dyke!” His rage left several dinner plates smashed and Maria hurting for weeks. Maria stops speaking Russian in her father’s presence.

7

Maria knows now that as the older one, she can control the telepathic link between herself and Natalia much better than Natalia can.

As such, she knows to shield Natalia from the pain and fear from her father’s violent and rageful episodes. She figures that she has suffered enough for both herself and her soulmate, and so she stems all pain from her father’s beatings, and all the guilt and grief about murdering her mother. Maria knows that some of her suffering still passes through their link, especially when she lets her guard down, because Natalia always shows her a mental image of Maria’s grandma’s cookies when Natalia realises that Maria was feeling low.

Maria’s grandma visits rarely, and it’s even rarer for Maria to visit. But when she does, her grandma never fails to pamper her granddaughter. They share home baked chocolate chip cookies (Maria’s favourite) on the patio of her grandmother’s house, and sometimes Maria sits on her grandmother’s lap while her grandma points out the different types of daisies that her grandma grows in her lovely garden. Maria never fails to soak in the ample sun and send it to Natalia when she can, because Maria can always feel the pleased buzz that is Natalia enjoying the feel of the sun through their link.

* * *

 One night, Maria awakes, sweating and gasping for breath as she sees Natalia surrounded by fire and burning beams. In sheer, utter fear, she runs to her father’s room, and tries to explain, tries to tell her father to save Natalia, to call the Russian fire department- to do _something_. But she can’t breathe, can’t breathe—

She’s drowning in the feeling of not being able to do _anything_. She manages a gasped “Natalia!” before a terrifying man clouds her vision, her father’s deep voice in her ears telling to “Get a grip!”, and everything fades to black.

She is nestled in her bed when she next awakens, throat hoarse, eyes crusty from the tears shed, and her mind, for the first time since she was two years old, was empty of Natalia’s presence.

Her father sits by her side, oddly quiet, eerily calm. 

“What happened?” He asks when she begins sitting up.

Maria turns her face away, does not reply, not wanting her father to see her vulnerable. But the tears betray her, begins filling her vision.

“Can you hear… your soulmate?” He asks, voice devoid of any emotion, cold and empty.

She doesn’t reply, but the tears fall.

He’s the gentlest with her in years, as he puts a hand on her shoulder, squeezing slightly, “Maybe it’s for the best.”

At that, she shrugs his arm off forcefully, and silently, he leaves the room.

“Is that how you feel about mom?” Maria asks the empty room brokenly, and collapses back into bed, tears now flowing unbridled onto her pillow.

12

Natalia might never again reply to her, but Maria always sets aside time every day to share her day with her, especially when she can send whatever warmth from the sun as she can muster through the part of her that's no longer there. Sometimes it frustrates her to no end, but she pushes on.

Though she wonders if it's insensitive to send warmth to a person who died in a fire, but it makes her happy thinking that the warmth from the sun had brought such happiness and glee to her soulmate's short life.

15

Natalia is not dead.

On the ground lays the twisted, mangled body of Natalia's friend, and Natalia is so disgusted at the blood on her hands and _afraid_ for her life.

Maria’s ecstatic when she sees a vision in her head not of her own, and she almost yells in glee, even as the vision is stifled and abruptly ended.

Then the reality sinks in and brings her heart along at the realisation of what she’d just seen.

And fury bubbles up.

That night, through the everlasting telepathic silence, she promises Natalia that she’ll find her one day. And Maria _will_ keep her safe.

She begins teaching herself Russian from the books in the library, and takes up odd jobs to sign up for a mixed martial arts class.

Her teacher is a woman named Diana Prince, a beautiful woman who looks like she could take down ten Nazis without so much as breaking a sweat.

She takes one look at Maria’s gangly teenage limbs, determined scowl, and orders a hundred pushups and burpees as warm up.

Her father stops hitting her when he realises that she can hit back even harder, but his words grow ever harsher as he reminds Maria everyday of how she killed her mother just by being _born._

16

The next vision she gets from Natalia hits her like a freight train in the middle of AP History.

Her soulmate sobs, gasping in the cold snow, looking down at the lifeless body of the man Natalia had loved, mutilated beyond belief, eyes unseeing and open, blood seeping through the pure white snow, already beginning to freeze.

Maria gags, rushes out of the class, for the washroom at the grisly sight, and the contents of her stomach just upped and left.

When she recovers, she stands in the summer sun where she was, allowing herself to soak up its heat and seep through their connection, hoping that it could keep Natalia warm as well.

_I’ll always be here no matter what, Natalia._

18

The moment she can, she leaves her father, Chicago, and her old life behind as she signs away her life to the military. She wasn’t sure who was more relieved between her father and her, but they were both glad to see the last of one another.

She might be wrong, but she might have found a new family in her section.

There’s Noah, a freckly ginger the same age as her, who loves sneaking her food in the mess hall whenever she wasn’t looking.

Drew, an intelligent woman with wits for days, whom everyone in the squad looks to for top-notch life advice.

Ethan, with the coldest jokes, but who never fails to keep the morale and cheer up whenever he entered a room.

Then there’s her sergeant, a no-nonsense lady in charge of her squad, one Sgt Alex Danvers, who always expects the best from them, drilling, sparring and training them to the best of their abilities.

The only relics of her past are two pictures she has in her bedside locker; a selfie with her grandma and another photograph of her mom that her grandma had given her.

Maria never fails to keep Natalia updated with her section’s latest antics and adventures at night. 

19

It makes sense that her grandma would pass away while Maria was on tour in Afghanistan. She was pulled aside by Alex one day while they were resting in a bunk, and Alex delivered the news together with a single envelope. Within it was a pendant with a small daisy encased in clear acrylic, attached to a metal chain of silver. Also within the envelope was a letter written in her grandma’s tidy handwriting:

_My dearest Maria,_

_I hope this letter finds you well, little one. If you’re reading this, it must mean that I’ve gone on to meet your mother._

_Do not miss me too much, my dear. I have spent all available time I could with you, and I don’t regret a single moment with you. I have lived my life to the fullest, and my only regret is that I cannot be with you whenever you need me because God knows you deserve all the support I can give._

_So, little one, I have prepared a little something for you. With this pendant, I will always be with you, close to your heart. I will look over you, just like your mother has all this time, maybe until Natalia can come along and help do our work for us, eh?_

_Despite what you or your father may think, Maria, you are your mother’s daughter, and your mother loved you very much. She loved the cookies you are so fond of, and she could demolish an entire tray by herself when she was pregnant with you. She used to tell me that her only wish was for you to grow to be a confident, healthy woman who forges her own path in life. I think her wish had come true, don’t you?_

_You remind me so much of your mother, little one. You have your mother’s fire, and I think you will achieve so many things that your mother couldn’t. Between the both of us, your father is a bit of a poppycock, too hard headed to see what he lost, and not what he still has. I think he misses your mother a little too much to see her in you everyday._

_When you’re ready, I hope you can forgive him. For your sake more than his._

_Remember, I will forever be with you, wishing you happiness and safety. Your mother and I don’t want to see you here too soon, so stay safe in Afghanistan, alright?_

_Love,_

_Gram._

Maria doesn’t cry, but Alex stays by her side for the entire month. Natalia sees all this, and a tentative picture of a chocolate chip cookie comes through their link.

Maria buries her face in her hands.

20

She did not cry when she was the only one to walk out of an ambush alive.

She did not cry even while comforting the families of her squad mates. Drew’s mother collapsed on Maria when she delivered the flag to her. Maria did not flinch when Noah’s brother hurled abuse at her for being the sole survivor. Nor did she even blink when one of Ethan’s wife tore the Purple Heart medal from her uniform and threw it at her while screaming that Maria should have died and her husband should have lived.

She served as Alex’s sole family member at her funeral, her daisy pendant a heavy weight upon her chest, one that had kept her alive and killed the rest of her squadron.

Maria said nothing, and shed not a tear, only trudging along with her duties.

25

So Diana Prince actually knew Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD. Turns out Maria had been on their radar ever since the fateful day that she found Diana.

He promises her a more fulfilling career in SHIELD. A better pay, a better use of her intellect, and a job that saves lives instead of taking them.

He even offers to help her look for Natalia as part of her contract. Maria hasn't heard from Natalia since the fuzzy memory of a chocolate chip cookie came in the Afghan desert, so she could only provide "Natalia", "Russian", and "Loves the sun's warmth" in her search, and leaves "Has killed" out of it.

Fury looks at her almost pityingly, and she glares him down.

And he nods, satisfied.

She accepts.

And with the clandestine nature of her work? She stops telling Natalia about her days. There had been little to no reply for 18 years anyway, and she has no time to be frustrated about it any longer.

She shields her mind as well as she did the people of the world; for if she could keep them safe, she could keep Natalia safe.

28

The search for Natalia comes up empty, as Maria had expected.

SHIELD promotes her to Assistant Director, though. And according to Nick, she's the youngest to ever fill the position. People whisper behind their backs, but Nick brushes them off when she mentions a few of their concerns, saying that if any agent paid that amount of attention to their missions instead of gossip just like Maria had done, they too could become the Assistant Director.

30

Two years before, the Red Room's Black Widow went rogue, accepting contracts and did just about anything for the highest bidder. Maria orders a close eye to be kept on her, but the Widow proves to be surprisingly slippery herself.

She orders that their agents stepped up their efforts in finding her, and for the Intel department to create a file on everything they could pull together on the Black Widow program.

Their findings appals her, and oddly, she finds herself sympathising with the Black Widow. But there was no room for sympathy in her line of work, especially when dealing with SHIELD's enemies.

Intel gathered about the Black Widow's location was always just the right amount of outdated, but Maria could feel it: the ever elusive Black Widow was slipping, growing ever so sloppy with the missions she accepted.

Until one day, the Widow slips. SHIELD actually caught sight of her in Budapest. She orders Agent Barton and his handler, Agent Coulson on the case.

She's halfway into the operation to squash the Black Widow, leaning against a console and watching the mission through Barton's body cam on the main screen of mission control as he shoots an arrow through the Widow's leg, is struck by a Widow Bite, falls to the ground, and engages the Black Widow. In a stroke of sheer, dumb luck, Hawkeye manages to pin the Black Widow to the ground, gun to her throat, when Maria's vision flashes.

It was Barton hovering over Natalia, gun at her throat, with an overwhelming sense of finality, hopelessness and even relief. Then Natalia's voice rings in Maria's head for the first time in 23 years, _"Take care, Любимая моя."_ and everything snaps into clarity to Maria.

"Wait! Barton! Hold! Do not kill the Black Widow!" She nearly shouts into her earpiece.

She is almost heaving with aggravation, thinking furiously about her next moves.

"Do you have a legitimate reason for stopping this mission, Director Hill?" Nick Fury asks behind her.

Maria pauses, debating on her choice of words, "May I have a word in private, sir?"

The moment they are out of earshot, she speaks as clearly as she can without hesitation.

"Director Fury, I invoke Section 4, Clause 3A of my contract."

Fury drags a palm over his face, reciting, "Upon identification, SHIELD will offer immediate protection for your soulmate, Natalia," he heaves a great sigh, "I'd guessed as much. Only you, Director Hill, only _you_ can have a soulmate in the Black Widow."

She opens her mouth to argue. He holds a hand out to stop her.

" _Nevertheless_ , we shall uphold your contract." Fury taps on his earpiece, snapping, "Barton! Bring her in,"

Maria's breath of relief conflicted with her hammering heart as she turns back to the widescreen to sees Barton hoisting the Widow into a SHIELD extraction vehicle, the Widow complying quietly and the connection in her head once again dead silent.

"Director?" She tries to find the words, feeling oddly small. "Nick... I.. have to ask a favour."

He listens. And agrees.

* * *

Maria keeps her mind shut and her body language even more guarded as she sees both Coulson and Barton escorting her soulmate down the halls of the helicarrier.

"Welcome to SHIELD, Black Widow."

"Why am I here?" Natalia eyes her surroundings suspiciously, fidgeting with her handcuffs as if to draw attention to them. Maria is not fooled. Should she have wanted to escape, no handcuff in the world would have restrained Natalia.

"You are here, Ms Widow, because SHIELD has decided to offer you a proposition and protection in lieu of certain death."

"Why?"

"Let's just say our Director sees certain potential in you."

"You see potential in a defector?"

"Was there a reason you defected?"

That gave the Black Widow pause, "I defected because the Red Room failed to ensure my safety," she said cautiously.

Maria considers her for a second.

"If you pledge loyalty to SHIELD, I promise that we will assure your safety."

Natalia stares at her curiously, even going to the extent of cocking her head to the side in doing so. Even the two agents at her side seemed unnerved.

Maria stares back, determined not to give anything away.

"You seem very sure of yourself. How are you so sure?"

"We have our ways, Black Widow. And we are not the Red Room."

The Widow shifts, openly uncomfortable with being addressed by her title.

"Natalia. My name is Natalia Alianova Romanova."

Maria could sing with the satisfaction of knowing her soulmate's full name.

Instead, Maria nods impassively, "I am Assistant Director Maria Hill of SHIELD." Before she could see Natalia's forehead pinch together in suspicion, she turns and leads the way to the meeting room. "Now, if you'll follow me, Ms Romanova, we have a few issues to discuss."

31

She becomes a friend to Natal--Natasha-- and she sees a young woman stuck in an assassin's body, and she watches at the sidelines as Natalia Alianova Romanova, the Black Widow, grows into Natasha Romanoff, Agent of SHIELD. She watches as Natasha undergoes her de-programming while getting closer with, and eventually into nonsensical shenanigans with Barton.

She learns to know when either agent would hide in the air vent directly above her seat in her office. It became their thing when she'd keep a laser pointer on her desk to point it at them and declare that they're dead, only to hear them laugh almost childlike and scamper away.

She watches as Natasha gets asked out by a myriad of agents who she, satisfyingly, turns down.

Until one night, right after Natasha was cleared from de-programming, a tentative voice creeps into her head as she is trying to fall asleep.

_"Maria...?"_

With all her might, she tries to ignore the call from her soulmate.

Like an itch, the silence in her head grew unbearable, till...

_Still here, Natalia. Always._

And Maria sends her a mental picture of a chocolate chip cookie.

For the first time in her life, she felt a sense of security waft through their connection, and she falls asleep.

The next day, she found Natasha eyeing her suspiciously throughout the day, shouting random phrases in Russian mentally at Maria at sudden intervals. Maria replies smoothly in Russian, requests for Natasha to not _shout!_ over their telepathic link, not flinching the slightest externally as she concentrated on her daily tasks. Natasha then turns to very, very suggestive things that any normal person would blush 50 shades of red at.

When Maria figures that the Assistant Director was growing weary of Natasha's constant attention for the day, she returns Natasha's scrutinizing gaze with a cold glare of her own.

"Do you need another mission, Agent Romanoff? Or perhaps more paperwork?"

Natasha blanches at the mention of more paperwork, shakes her head vehemently and scuttles away.

Maria smirks to herself, thankful for the fact that she was an excellent multi-tasker and could compartmentalise her emotions well while at work.

That night, Natasha talked to her before bed.

_"My boss is mean. She threatened me with more paperwork when I stared too long at her. I hope you're nothing like her at work. Her name is Maria too, you know, but she is one hardass commander unlike you."_

Maria laughs out loud in the quiet of her room.

_Why were you staring at another woman, Natalia?_

_"I... I thought she might be you, that was why I was I was saying all those weird things today. I hope... I hope you didn't mind them."_

_I'm just glad to be talking to you again, Natalia. Just don't stare at your hardass commander so much?_

There was discomfort floating through the link, _"Natasha. I go by Natasha now. I'm Natasha Romanoff."_

_Natasha... Romanoff... I like it._

_"What's your full name, Maria? How can I find you? I... I have so much to explain and make up to you."_

The ache in Maria's heart was tangible. She wanted to come out to Natasha, tell her that it was all a prank that she'd come up with as payback for the decades of Natasha shutting her off, but...

_I... I'm not sure if I can handle that right now. Everyone I love tends to die when I get too attached to them. I can't risk that with you, Natasha. I can't. It’s safer for you this way._

_"Maria..."_

She doesn't answer, and Natasha doesn't push. But they begin talking occasionally at night, speaking nothing of meeting again.

32

"There’s nothing personal on your dossier."

Maria raised her eyebrows, barely glancing up from the report she was reading, "Because that information should be two clearance levels above yours, Romanoff."

Natasha lounges on the sofa next to Maria's desk. She had ordered the padding to be extra stiff. Just to add to the hardass Hill reputation.

"Come on, Maria. You wrote my dossier, but I hardly know anything about you. We're friends, right? I know your age, your name, your birthplace, but I know nothing of where you came from, your family, your history, your soulmate… Nothing. Tell me something about yourself. Just a little something. About your family, your childhood... your soulmate? Anything?"

Maria pauses, stiffens. Wonders at what she should say that wouldn't give her away.

"Come on, Hill. Just give me something to work with."

Maria's voice was subdued, "When I was seven, I felt my soulmate die."

Natasha snaps to her side, kneeling at her side and taking one of Maria's hands, "Shit, I'm so, so sorry, Maria. I can't even imagine what that must be like for you."

"It's alright. I chose to tell you that. It was just... lonely and really quiet in here." Maria taps at her temple, "You know how normal kids with their normal soulmates could cheat on tests together? I had to ensure that I scored even higher so the kids and teachers wouldn't notice anything. Only my grandmother knew."

"Were you close to your grandmother?"

"She was the only family I trusted."

Natasha stiffened, and Maria felt a familiar niggling at the back of her brain.

_"Maria...?"_

Maria berated at how foolish she had been disclosing the information she did.

_Natasha? What's wrong?_

Maria rubs her eye innocently.

_"...Nothing."_

Natasha then started again, fixing Maria with a gaze more intense than ever before. "I didn't talk to my soulmate for 24 years."

Maria forced herself blink in surprise. "Why?"

Natasha scoffs, "I was taken by the Red Room when I was five. You know what they did to us. I never, ever wanted my soulmate to see any of that, what I had to do, who I had become. She doesn't deserve any of that. She's the sweetest daisy in a cold, hard world," her eyes are fixed on Maria's expression, "and I love her to no end."

Maria smiles gently, "She sounds amazing."

"She really is. She never stopped talking to me in the first 18 years when I stopped talking to her, even if it was just a five minute monologue at night on her side. She knows I love the warmth of the sun so she sent that whenever she could, and... many a time it'd saved me from freezing to death. Those were what kept me going in the Black Widow program. One day, she just... stopped, and I... I just slowly derailed from there. I was struck with the fear that I'd inadvertently killed her through my actions. So... so I defected. I defected and went out of control so someone could do something.” Natasha seems almost desperate to be explaining this to Maria now, “And SHIELD, SHIELD saved me. SHIELD is allowing me to wipe my ledger clean, and I owe Barton so much for..."

Natasha's eyes glazed over even as she stared at Maria, and Maria could see her putting the pieces together even as Natasha's grip on her hand tightened.

"The files said you were in charge of the operation to kill the Black Widow. Barton stopped right after I'd contacted my soulmate. Clint told me that _you_ were the one who had called for him to stop..."

Natasha draws closer to Maria, gaze sharp on Maria and no longer distant. “How were you so sure SHIELD can protect me, Maria?”

A long silence. Maria surrenders, “Because _I_ won’t allow any harm to come to you.”  

"Maria..." Natasha breathes with a newfound awe and realisation as she looks up at Maria, as though seeing her for the first time. "Maria Hill..."

Maria had frozen with what Natasha was saying, at the expression of absolute wonder and love in her eyes.

And the loneliness over the years, the sheer weariness of being _alone_ all these years crashes down on Maria. For the first time, the prospect of being loved, of having someone to depend on, someone who will hold the power to make or break her _scares_ her to no end. Maria has never needed anyone. If she accepts Natasha now, she will also be accepting a vulnerability that Maria hadn’t had for close to two decades.

Maria stands abruptly, pushing her chair back and flicking Natasha's hand off of hers, trying to swallow the sheer shock at the progression of events. She vaults over her desk, inches to the door.

Natasha stands, but otherwise makes no moves to stop Maria.

Maria turns and bolts from her office.

She gets to the end of the hallway before a small bomb goes off not fifteen feet away from her.

The last thing she heard was both physical and mental--

"MARIA!"

When Natasha finds Maria, unconscious, bloodied, and limp on the ground, her daisy pendant hangs freely from her neck, cracked and stained in Maria’s blood.

* * *

Her brain is cotton, there's something infinitely uncomfortable shoved up both her nostrils, and while it doesn't quite hurt when she breathes, there is definite discomfort in her ribs.

She opens her eyes, and she sees an angel bathed in white, contrasting sharply with the startling scarlet hair on the angel.

Said angel was looking at her very tenderly, very worriedly.

She tries to remember what had happened to place her here, and she only saw a flash of bright light and a deafening boom.

 _"There was terrorist attack on the Triskelion,"_ A voice at the back of her cottony brain says, _"Fury took care of it. You don’t need to worry about it, Maria Hill."_

She frowned, and tried to reach for the voice at the back of her head with her hand, but found a needle stuck into her arm, and she begins to freak out, because she _really_ didn't like needles.

The angel grabs her hand before she could even move to remove it, rubbing a thumb soothingly along her palm.

"Hardass Hill, afraid of needles, this is excellent blackmail material." The angel sings, almost beaming at Maria.

She frowns. The angel’s teeth were way too white and bright for her eyes right now. And her ass was not hard!

The angel laughs.

_"I’m going to find out for myself exactly how hard your ass is, Maria. You've done your best to keep me safe all these years, and I'm going to return the favour now. And you’re not going to give me an easy time doing it."_

Maria tries to reply, but her mouth was cotton too. The angel seemed to have read her mind, then, because a sippy cup of water materialises before her lips and she sucks at it greedily.

Maria wonders if the angel can conjure wine from water, too. Or some scotch.

The angel laughs again, "Nuh-uh, Maria. Fury dropped by and commanded you to get well as soon as humanly possible. He... might also have filled me in about the favour you asked of him. You deleted your personal information in your dossier to protect me just in case SHIELD got compromised… I have so much to thank you for, and so much to apologise…”

Maria watches the angel’s eyelashes flutter when she blinked. They were very long lashes.

“I’ve suspected. Deep inside, I guess I’ve always known it was you, but I guess I didn’t want to face it," The angel continued, visibly uncomfortable.

Something scratches at the edge of her consciousness, but the cotton keeps it at bay, and the angel's words confuse her.

"What is it, sweetheart?"

Maria tries, she really tries, but the cotton is a barrier to her thoughts, and her eyelids droop.

"Sleep, Ангел мой, sleep. I will be here when you wake. We will have plenty of time to talk." The angel's voice grew a little worried towards the end, but it only serves to make Maria fight harder for the elusive thought that laid just beyond the cotton...

Her thought pops free into her head like a flower bursting into bloom.

It was the fuzzy memory of a chocolate chip cookie.

Her angel chuckles.

Satisfied that she'd finally comforted her angel, she drifted off into a blissful, fully drugged sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Translations:  
> Ангел мой- my angel  
> Любимая моя- my sweetheart
> 
> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I would like to thank [Trans-aloy](https://trans-aloy.tumblr.com/) and [TheTruthAboutLove](https://thetruthaboutlovecomesat3am.tumblr.com/) for looking over this puppy and giving their valuable input! Go show them some love!
> 
> This was the one that got away from me! Please let me know what you thought of this! Thank you! And happy second day of Blackhill Week!


End file.
